Anti-virus opinions?

[pariah]

Hokay, so i am now using Windows 7 (although i haven't yet figured out how to activate it...) on 1 of my new harddrives, and i just installed Norton again. Problem is, it tells me i have 17 days until it 'expires' or some bullshit like that, and the greedy fuckers want me to PAY to renew it! I already payed $100 for this fucking thing, so should i give them more money, or are there better anti-virus, anti-malware, anti-hacking, etc. programs out there?

[RedGuard]

I have the same exact thing

windows 7, and the norton free trial. after it expired I went to mcafee cus I got it for free - but I liked norton better

[pariah]

It's not a free trial - I have had it for a while now. Almost a year.

[Cranialwizard]

In my past experiences Norton is not a good program to use, simply because when Anti-Virus programs become too large they begin to lose their effectiveness and become counter-productive. Norton is a very large program for it's purpose and if you install norton you might as well just be downloading a virus.

The other problem with well known programs like norton (Especially paid programs) is that they are big targets for virus work-arounds.

I used to use AVG for this very reason. It was a considerably small program and did it's task well and was not a well-known anti-virus program which reduced work-arounds to virus protection. (I've caught viruses with Norton multiple times, if you're buying a subscription you're seriously wasting your money.)

AVG got too big, like norton, to fulfill it's purpose though.

Currently I'm using Microsoft Security Essentials. It's a free program distributed by Microsoft and is pretty user friendly. Fairly small program, not heavy on resources but very powerful protection, not had a problem with viruses since I installed it.

[pariah]

Cool. So does Microsoft Security Essentials come with Windows, then?

[cephalos]

I'm using Avast! and it never ever dissapionted me. I trust it

[Walentin 'Walki' L.]

I use avira free edition... and as long your are downloading "safe" stuff it's ok. So no illegal things! The risk is very high that you get a brand new virus which your anti virus program doesn't know.

[Max 'DonXavi' von B.]

I use avira free edition... and as long your are downloading "safe" stuff it's ok. So no illegal things! The risk is very high that you get a brand new virus which your anti virus program doesn't know.

I also use that. It is free and offers a decent safety for your PC, however it can be quite annoying sometimes.. Trainers or Cracks are always marked as viruses and immedeately blocked, you have to add exceptions for them in Avira, what is not easy to do and find (I don't use cracked software or trainers  )

[Cranialwizard]

Cool. So does Microsoft Security Essentials come with Windows, then?

No, but if you look it up on google there's a free install off of microsoft's website.

[pariah]

Well that's pretty fucking stupid, because if it has to come from the Internet, there's a fair chance it will come with a virus.

[cephalos]

Not at all. If you download from official website it ought to be safe version. The company which shares this software mostly takes their work seriously and they protect software.

[pariah]

Yeah, but i wouldn't hook my computer up to the Internet without anti-virus installed. Too risky.

[Cranialwizard]

I doubt you'll catch a virus as soon as you access google.

Windows comes with a light security firewall that can block some incoming stuff, you can turn that on then access the web to go get something like microsoft's security thing or any other suggestion.

I strongly do not recommend renewing norton. They're taking your cash for an antivirus that's counter effective, it's more of a anti computer lol

[pariah]

Well, so far 83.3% of people say to ditch Norton, so that's probably a good idea. So i'm thinking maybe Avast, or Microsoft Security Essentials.

[Seeme]

Norten Sucks. Dont go with it.